City’s real mistake
The second half felt strange last night. It was almost as if Manchester City were trailing 1-0 in the first leg of the tie and were hoping to hold on to that position, yet in fact it was a scoreline that was sending them out of the competition after the 0-0 draw at the Etihad Stadium last week.
They hardly troubled Real Madrid throughout this semi-final. Kelechi Iheanacho, the young forward, has looked their most dangerous player in the last couple of weeks and has been scoring goals, yet he was only brought on 20 minutes from the end of the game, ten minutes after the entrance of Raheem Sterling, who has been out of sorts.
Modric a marvel
Luka Modric was superb as usual for Real Madrid last night. The simplicity of his game is something that all midfielders should aspire to.
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His touch is excellent, he always wants the ball, he will rarely overelaborate and he keeps the ball moving quickly.
The Croatian is never going to dribble past three or four players but he was bought from Tottenham Hotspur just to do the simple things while players such as Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo make more spectacular contributions. Modric was always a key player at White Hart Lane and he makes Real a more complete team.
Kompany clanger
Sadly for many footballers one injury leads to another, and that is certainly the case with Vincent Kompany. Yet again the Manchester City defender has broken down soon after returning from a spell out, and it is no coincidence.
I thought he should have been given a run-out away to Southampton on Sunday, perhaps for an hour, because he hasn’t played enough football. It was too much to expect him to come straight into a high-tempo, high-stakes match last night after spending so much time sidelined. The sight of their captain and best defender hobbling off in the first ten minutes was a psychological blow for his team-mates.
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Shot-shy Agüero left isolated
Manchester City are not built to play in a negative, conservative style in the manner of Atletico Madrid, yet that is how they set out last night. Sergio Agüero barely got a kick when up against Sergio Ramos and Pepe in the first leg and he was even more isolated last night.
City are only really capable of winning games with flair and by being aggressive. The game of walking football was invented a few years back and Yaya Touré decided he would play it last night. You just can’t do that at this level. He rarely got forward to support Agüero and that limited the Argentinian’s impact on the game.
Agüero had 51 touches but not one inside the Real penalty area. The former Atletico striker has not hit a shot on target in 525 Champions League minutes and last night’s defeat means that he is yet to beat Real in any of his 14 matches against them.
De Bruyne bypassed
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Kevin De Bruyne is a wonderful player who has been in good form but his defending leaves much to be desired.
His best position is just behind the striker — a role that Yaya Touré was theoretically playing last night — but the Belgian was instead asked to operate on the left, where he was required to track back and help Gaël Clichy, the City left back.
Unfortunately he left Dani Carvajal, the right back, completely free in the build-up to Real opening the scoring — the Spaniard sending Gareth Bale through for the shot that deflected past Joe Hart.